Onew's gaze flicked from Taemin to Jonghyun who was stomping hurriedly in their direction, his lips pressed into a thin line, eyes burning. "Ah, hi there princess." the older smiled, a little hesitantly, feeling small twinges of guilt in the pit of his stomach.

Jonghyun focused on Taemin's right arm instead, the way it was tightly wrapped around Jinki's, the way it made their bodies press so close to each other. "Let him go." he barked out in the younger's direction and when the man obliged, totally dumbfounded, he grabbed his hyung's hand to drag him away. They walked like this until Jonghyun was sure they were alone and no one was going to disturb them. He then stopped and turned around taking a look at Onew whose expression was a mix of confusion, amusement and a little of something he couldn't quite describe. Challenge?

The older sat down on the grass and made himself comfortable, propping his body with arms. "Soo.. do you mind explaining the meaning of this?" 

"Are you and Taemin together?" Jonghyun asked, not being able to keep it in anymore. He was standing still, frozen almost, his fist clenched at his sides, but his mind was running at highest speed processing all the images he'd seen, all the words he'd heard from Kibum. 

It was obvious that Onew wasn't expecting this question, his eyes widened slightly as he looked up at the younger. "We're not." he answered simply.

They're not. Jonghyun was relieved, but only a little bit. He noticed that Onew's voice was calm, as if he didn't care whether Jonghyun would believe him or not and a small part of him thought Jinki was lying, it was the part that experienced the older breaking their promise today, the part that believed Kibum's words a little too much. "Who is he to you then, hyung?"

Onew's eyes sparkled slightly in interest. "An old friend? A younger brother? Yeah I guess I could call him that." he crossed his legs and his lips stretched into a small smile. "Are you asking because you're curious or -...?"

"I don't want you to hang out with him"

"...-jealous.."

"I mean, we always spend our free time together and then one day the morning training is over and you're nowhere to be found. And then you come back with Taemin by your side as if nothing had ever happened. You ditched me for him and didn't even bother telling me you're ditching me. It didn't take you long to forget about me, did it hyung? So what now? Are you going to throw me away since the real thing is back and you don't need a substitute anymore?" Jonghyun took a deep breath through his nose and pressed his lips together trying to ignore the buzzing in his ears.

"Substitute... what?" Onew scrunched his nose in confusion. "Jonghyun, I haven't seen him in ages, we needed to talk about some things in peace. And no one is throwing anyone away,  I was gone for barely a few hours, why are you making such a big deal out of it? I'm sorry but you're acting a bit ridiculous."

And that's when it hit him. He'd just blurted out a ton of embarrassing, jealous sounding in the wake of emotions, not thinking through even one thing that had left his mouth. His lips parted, opening and closing like a fish out of water, his face becoming a nice, bright shade of red. Ridiculous was definitely how he was feeling right now. He should write a book titled '101 easy ways to embarrass yourself in front of your crush'.

Crush? Did he really just think that?

"I don't... uhh... Haha, let's... let's just forget about this, shall we?" he stuttered, looking everywhere but at Onew.

The older's eyes narrowed slightly, a smug grin appearing on his face. "Let's... not" he stood up and took a step closer to the other man. "Maybe we should talk about how you're so upset about me spending a few hours with Minnie instead?"

The pet name burned Jonghyun's ears but he wasn't going to let it sh